This website is dedicated to the 1940 bequest of works to the South African National Gallery under the terms of Sir Abe Bailey’s will. The Bailey collection comprises over 400 works, including paintings, drawings and prints. The majority of the paintings in the Bailey collection are either portraits or sporting paintings. Nearly all the works were produced in Britain in the period 1750-1850, a ‘golden age’ for both types of painting.

The prints and drawings/watercolours in the collection deal with a wider variety of themes, although many of the prints, again, are of sporting subjects. The collection also features an interesting selection of English landscape watercolours.

The site offers a biography of Bailey, a discussion of his activities as art collector and a selection of entries on the media and themes represented in the collection. Information on provenance is provided where available in the case of the portraits in the collection, while biographical notes on artists accompany the sporting paintings.